Modern society has created a lifestyle for many members of society that can be characterized as sedentary, with many hours of minimal or no physical activity, typically sitting at a desk or computer. Simultaneously, the diet of many people has deteriorated, with ensuing obesity, diabetes, heart disease and many other modern diseases. This lifestyle has also led to high growth in the cost of health care for society.
Many of the above issues can be addressed through exercise. The treadmill is one of the most popular exercise machines available, and could play a major role in addressing issues of health and fitness. The treadmill typically provides a continuous rotating surface on which individuals can run or walk in place. In some cases, the surface is formed from an elastic belt driven by rollers and supported by an underlying rigid deck. In other cases, the surface may be formed from a series of rigid slats running perpendicular to the direction of rotation. In both scenarios, a drive motor propels the surface, typically at a variable speed. Often times, an incline motor is able to adjust the angle of the rotating treadmill running or walking surface to simulate uphill and/or downhill movement.
However the treadmill, which has been around for many decades, still has many unresolved shortcomings that discourage a wider use. Two major shortcomings of treadmills are:
a) Impact: potential damage to joints because of repetitive impact, which eventually causes fatigue failure to joints or bones. Fatigue is a well-known effect in engineering and well described by the Woehler curve, which causes failure of mechanical components due to stresses that can be well tolerated if they happen occasionally but will lead to failure if applied repetitively; an analogy would be bending a wire a couple of times, which probably will not cause damage to the wire, but if that is repeated back and forth many times, it is likely that the wire will break. The legs can be subjected to hundreds of thousands of repetitive impacts on a conventional treadmill, so fatigue is a very real issue in these machines; and
b) boredom during usage of the treadmill, which leads to users giving up and not coming back to the treadmill, which often becomes a dust collector in a household.
Embodiments of the present invention may address those and/or other issues. Some embodiments provide a technological solution that reduces repetitive impact injury to users and at the same time keeps users motivated to continue the regular usage of the treadmill. Embodiments also integrate the diet and other types of exercise into the treadmill usage program to create a comprehensive lifestyle management system that revolves around the treadmill.
There have been many unsuccessful attempts to resolve the above issues, which continue to plague even the latest, most advanced treadmills. One early attempt is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,831, which discloses a treadmill with a complex system of dampeners and lever arms located under the deck of the treadmill, intended to reduce the intensity of the impacts on the user. The proposed structure has issues of excessive complexity and high cost, as well as non-adjustability, meaning that all users are treated equally, despite differences in size, weight, age, gender, health condition, prior injuries, and the like.
Another attempt in the prior art is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,810, which discloses a treadmill pivoted at its rear end and resting on a spring/shock absorber combination located at the forward end of the treadmill. This arrangement provides very limited and partial dampening at best, because the rear of the treadmill is sitting undampened on a rigid steel bar. In addition, this system is also non-adjustable and non-controllable.
A further attempt is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,155, which discloses a dampening system based on a longitudinally extending leaf spring (similar to some truck suspensions). This system tries to provide some adjustability through possible longitudinal movement of an adjustment metal bar along the treadmill. However, the complexity, cost and weight of such a system make it impractical. In addition, a user would have to stop the treadmill and climb underneath to do any adjustments, and repeat this trial and error procedure until the right point is reached, which is not something most users would be willing to do.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,528 shows a treadmill equipped with air-filled rubber bladders which are laid between the side rails of the treadmill and its deck. Therefore the rubber surface of the bladders is in direct contact, “sandwiched” between the metal rail on one side and the wooden deck on the other side. This arrangement is susceptible to wear, noise, potential cuts and punctures, air leaks, high cost and short useful life of the bladders. It is believed to be an impractical approach that has never reached wide scale commercial implementation, likely for the reasons just mentioned. That same patent mentions as an alternative the use of foam or rubber strips instead of the air bladders. That is a more practical approach that has been used for many years, but of course it lacks adjustability.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,435,160 (“the '160 patent”) discloses a treadmill based on two main features: a) a set of wheels at the rear end of the treadmill, with said wheels sitting directly on the floor and providing a pivoting axis around which the whole upper structure of the treadmill can be rotated and raised, and b) a set of air springs at the front end of the treadmill intended to cushion the upper structure of the treadmill. This proposed structure has several disadvantages and shortcomings. A major disadvantage is that it dampens only the front of the treadmill, while the rear wheels sit undampened directly on the floor (which is rigid and generates impact reaction forces that may continue to hit the user). It is the equivalent of a car with dampeners only in the front; nobody would be happy inside such a car, not only the rear passengers who would get the full impact of any bumps but also the front passengers, because they would get a substantial portion of those impacts as well (the metal structure propagates the impacts to everybody). A second major issue with that proposed configuration is that the full weight of the treadmill upper structure (including its heavy metal frame structure, deck, stepping board, belt and other components plus user weight) has to be carried by the air springs. That makes it necessary to use relatively stiff air springs with high internal air pressure, and the ability to dampen the user is severely limited (the air springs have to be designed to carry the machine weight plus the person, not just the person). The result is a relatively stiff ride with significant user impact.
A further problem in the '160 patent is the unnatural pivoting motion of the user when potentially using such a machine. Instead of experiencing the normal, primarily vertical “ups and downs” of a walk, the user would be subject to a repetitive circular motion around the contact point of the rear wheel on the floor, which may feel unnatural and potentially uncomfortable or dizzying.
Another issue in '160 patent is the absence of a complete dampening system. In some ways, the air springs are analogous to rubber balls at relatively high pressure, potentially behaving in a “springy” and “bouncy” manner. The undampened air springs can lead to an uncomfortable ride on the treadmill.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,308,592 describes another approach to reduce impact, based on a foamed cushion layer. Similar foam or polymer layer approaches have been used for many years, but they provide limited cushioning and very limited or no adjustability to different users.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,968,163 addresses the issue of impact and weight by providing a set of supports including a saddle to enable a user to exercise with minimal weight or impact on the body. This is intended primarily for therapy purposes.
Another major problem with treadmills is their boring nature which makes many users abandon their exercise program. There have been attempts to address that by connecting video players, TV monitors or computers to the treadmill, in order to be able to provide entertainment and games. U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,295 describes an interface to a computer that constantly displays a speed target to keep the user motivated. U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,084 describes a motivational display. U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,191 combines the treadmill with a game of chance to maintain motivation and interest. U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,459 describes a game to help keep the treadmill user interested. U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,513 describes an exercise apparatus that can interact with an external video game console such as a Nintendo machine and/or a TV display. Despite all those ideas and concepts, the problem of boredom remains largely unsolved and many users quit the use of the treadmill after a short period of time due to boredom.
Some embodiments of the present invention addresses some or all of the health and the boredom issues in treadmills in a novel way that can revolutionize the use of this type of exercise equipment with huge benefits for individuals and society.